How pro female surfers rose above storm waves of sexism
Johanne Defay of France was devastated when the mega sponsor Roxy dropped her right before she became a pro surfer in 2014, shattering her confidence and threatening her career altogether.
“They were just like ‘Oh, you don’t look this way, you know, for, like, pictures,” Ms. Defay said. “And I just felt like I was never doing enough or I wasn’t fitting in, in the way that they wanted for their brand.”
Now, Ms. Defay is headed to the Tokyo Olympics for surfing’s debut at the Summer Games, buoyed by an upset win against reigning world champion Carissa Moore at the high-intensity Surf Ranch competition last month.
Though there’s much excitement and renewed enthusiasm for the women’s game, years of objectification, pay disparities, and an opportunity gap have taken their toll. Industry leaders from the professional World Surf League (WSL) and the developmental USA Surfing say they’re committed to righting the wrongs that have long held female surfers back in the male-dominated sport.
The mental, financial, and logistical roadblocks for women in surfing date back centuries.
Hawaiians who invented the sport treated it as an egalitarian national pastime that all genders, ages, and social classes enjoyed, according to Isaiah Helekunihi Walker, a Hawaii surfing historian. But Christian missionaries who arrived on the island tried to ban surfing in large part because of nudity – surfing naked was common at the sports’ inception. Though locals largely defied the colonizers, female surfers saw their ranks shrink disproportionately.
“When it comes to controlling nudity, it’s about controlling female bodies,” said Mr. Walker, also a BYU-Hawaii history professor.
Even for Ms. Moore, the child prodigy who could beat the boys before growing up to be – at 18 years old – the youngest World Surf League champion in history, she has said she’s also struggled with her body image. Ms. Moore is 28 now and has spoken openly about starving herself as a teenager, only to binge eat later.
“Everyone had this idea of what a surfer girl should look like. And there were a lot of ‘hot lists’ or the ‘cutest surfer girl list,’” Ms. Moore said. “I never made them, but then you see who actually made them and you feel like: ‘Oh, I guess, like, that’s what I should look like.’”
Modern-day professional surfing in a previous iteration had a decentralized approach that left brand sponsors in charge of many of the competition logistics, which would vary widely from one event to another, said Greg Cruse, USA Surfing CEO. And though it wasn’t an official rule or standard, there was clearly a preference for the men’s game.
Surfing schedules are determined in the morning based on what the ocean waves are like, and it was no secret that the boys’ and men’s competitions would be given the best surf conditions, usually in the morning. Female surfers took the scraps, if they were invited at all.
“There’d be the event directors and they would kind of schedule things the way they wanted to schedule and there would be bias from the outdated patriarchy. It’s changed immensely,” Mr. Cruse said. “It took a while for the women to complain about it.”
A turning point came in 2013, when new ownership took over the professional league and the rebranded WSL began to prioritize standardizing the competitions and rebuilding the women’s events, said Jessi Miley-Dyer, a retired pro surfer who now runs the WSL’s competition as senior vice president.
In 2019, the WSL as the leaders of the $10 billion surfing industry also began offering equal prize money for all its events, making it one of the few professional sports leagues to achieve pay equity.
“It was an important statement to make around the value of our athletes. More than anything, it speaks to the emphasis on women’s surfing. We believe men and women are valued the same,” Ms. Miley-Dyer said. “It’s the right thing to do.”
The announcement was emotional for many, including Ms. Miley-Dyer. Back in 2006 when she won a pro event, she earned just $10,000 – a third of what the top male surfer took home.
“I cried because it means so much,” Ms. Miley-Dyer said. “I had also retired, so it wasn’t something for me, but it felt something to me and so many people like me.”
Next year will be the first time the WSL will include its women surfers at the famous Pipe Masters competition, allowing them the chance to ride the Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii, considered by many the best waves in the world.
The WSL has also committed to hosting the same number of events and in the same locations for both the men and women, though the competition at the highest level today still has twice as many male competitor spots – 36 – compared to the women’s game.
In terms of skill and experience, the damage caused by decades of sexism has not yet been fully reversed.
It used to be that girls could begin competitive surfing training at about 11 years old while boys began as early as 4, Mr. Cruse said, adding that USA Surfing has closed this experience gap.
And surfboard makers, like many male leaders in the sport, used to believe that girls and women weren’t strong enough to paddle or ride powerfully enough to pull off airs, or aerial maneuvers, so they were given bigger surfboards that are physically easier to ride, but limited their ability to progress into more explosive moves.
So while airs have for years become the gold standard in the men’s competition, it is rarely done by the top female surfers today. Ms. Moore, the U.S. surfer to beat at the Olympics, is among the first women to land an air during competition, a milestone she achieved just recently but has no doubt electrified the women’s game and its future.
“They started demanding getting the same type of equipment that allows you to generate more speed and turn sharper and harder,” Mr. Cruse said. “Right now, there’s a group of girls coming up. The girls under 16 are better at airs than any of the women in the WSL. They already have the air game and it’s next level and there’s going to be a changing of the guard.”
For Ms. Defay, she persevered during her first year without corporate backing. She remembers feeling humiliated hearing others take for granted their private car services arranged by their sponsors after Ms. Defay arrived on a two-hour bus ride in order to save money.
She’s thankful fellow pro surfer Jeremy Flores helped sponsor her “insane” rookie season, as a nine-month season can cost as much as $80,000 in travel costs alone.
Now, they’re equals, teammates in Japan on the French Olympic surfing team.
Ms. Defay’s journey to the pros has made her hungrier than ever to prove her talents and worth at the world’s most elite sporting event. And she’ll do it with the body she has learned to appreciate, regardless of how any sponsor may have judged her before.
Roxy didn’t respond to requests for comment on Ms. Defay’s past sponsorship deal.
“I like my shoulders now and my butt,” Ms. Defay said with a smirk. “It’s just what it is and what makes me surf this way, so I try to celebrate it.”
HOW TO SURF A FERRY SHIP BOW WAKE
Video from Ben Gravy
What's up NUB NATION!! It was a hard fought battle but I pulled it off!! This is how to surf a ferry ship bow wake!! We spent the day hunting the Cape May Lewes Ferry bow wake. Four attempts & an entire day later, but it was all worth it when I was riding that runner left down the bay!! Thanks to everyone for the support on the vlogs lately!! I feel like I'm truly living my dream!! NUB NATION FOR THE FUCKING WIN!!!!! - Love Ben
El Gringo XXL
Miguel Tudela, Alvaro Malpartida and Joaquín Del Castillo enjoy the big swell in the dangerous wave of El Gringo, located in Arica, Chile.
Video from Conectados Perú
Surfers Last Waves
Waves that ended in tragedy / Final rides caught on camera
Sion Milosky - Mavericks
He was a father of two and a dedicated big wave surfer. In 2010, he won an award for catching the biggest wave ever paddled into. In March of 2011, Sion Milosky drowned while surfing Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, Carlifornia
Kirk Passmore - Alligator Rock
Less than two days after Kirk Passmore went missing after a wipeout in large surf Wednesday on Oahu’s North Shore, his father expressed a wish that his son’s final ride be shared with as many people as possible.
Mark Foo - Mavericks
Chinese-born Mark Foo. In 1994, two days before Christmas, 36 year old Mark Foo drowned while surfing Mavericks a deadly big wave surf spot in Half Moon Bay outside of San Francisco.
Fatalities are extremely rare in big-wave surfing, despite the raw power of enormous swells generated by faraway storms. That’s because surfers, by and large, are a close-knit group and watch out for one another.
It’s also because most of them train vigorously to be able to withstand being held under for long periods, and because water patrol staff on personal watercraft are almost always on vigil during these large-surf events.
(There have been great strides in water safety on the North Shore since Todd Chesser, a famous surfer, died at Alligator Rock in 1997.)
Additionally, most surfers have come to realize the importance of floatation vests, which help them attain the surface faster after a wipeout, and keep their heads upright.
In a big wave wipeout, a breaking wave can push surfers down 20 to 50 feet (6.2 m to 15.5 m) below the surface. Once they stop spinning around, they have to quickly regain their equilibrium and figure out which way is up. Surfers may have less than 20 seconds to get to the surface before the next wave hits them. Additionally, the water pressure at a depth of 20–50 feet can be strong enough to rupture one's eardrums. Strong currents and water action at those depths can also slam a surfer into a reef or the ocean floor, which can result in severe injuries or even death.[6]
One of the greatest dangers is the risk of being held underwater by two or more consecutive waves. Surviving a triple hold-down is extremely difficult and surfers must be prepared to cope with these situations. Training styles vary such as D.Sloane weight drag/ free reef grab and pressure jet drag.[5]
A major issue argued between big wave surfers is the necessity of the leash on the surfboard. In many instances, the leash can do more harm than good to a surfer, catching and holding them underwater and diminishing their opportunities to fight towards the surface. Other surfers, however, depend on the leash. Now, tow in surfboards use foot holds (like those found on windsurfs) rather than leashes to provide some security to the surfer.[5]
These hazards have killed several big-wave surfers. Some of the most notable are Mark Foo, who died surfing Mavericks on December 23, 1994; Donnie Solomon, who died exactly a year later at Waimea Bay; Todd Chesser who died at Alligator Rock on the North Shore of Oahu on February 14, 1997; Malik Joyeux who died surfing Pipeline on Oahu on December 2, 2005; Peter Davi who died at Ghost Trees on December 4, 2007, Sion Milosky who died surfing Mavericks on March 16, 2011, and Kirk Passmore who died at Alligator Rock on November 12, 2014
Kirk Passmore - Alligator Rock |
David Cameron and wife on their bodyboards
Dave and ‘Sam Cam’ are big fans of a Cornish break and have had many happy holidays in Polzeath, you may even remember their daughter Florence was born prematurely on a previous trip to the area in 2010. They were clearly having a lot of fun messing about in the small waves and while Samantha opted for a full length Gul wetsuit, the Prime Minister’s choice of rubber was a C-Skins shortie, whilst their personal security team waited on the beach in the rain!
Can you think of a better way to relieve the stress that a world leader must encounter and have you ever seen any other dignitaries in the surf? There will no doubt a few of you out there that if you had seen the PM in the water you would have been tempted to have dropped in on him!
Pictures courtesy of Alistair Johnstone/SWNS
Tarik Rahim
Tarik Rahim surfing at his hometown in the north of Spain.
Clips by Gabriel Menendez, Sebastian and Seaphrodite
Edition Seaphrodite
Song by Tusks - Eyesaw
World Surf League - São Conrado beach had to be removed from the competition.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - A sewage-filled Rio de Janeiro beach has been removed from the list of venues for an upcoming surfing competition in the city, the World Surf League said Wednesday.
Spokesman Dave Prodan said in an emailed statement that Sao Conrado beach had to be removed as a competition site "due to pollution issues."
Sao Conrado had been a backup for the May 11-22 Rio Pro event, to be used in case of sub-par waves or other issues at the primary venue, nearby Barra da Tijuca beach.
Wedged between the high-rent Barra da Tijuca and Leblon neighborhoods and two "favela" hillside slums, Sao Conrado is among Rio's most polluted beaches. Much of the sewage from the slums flow untreated directly into the water. A ruptured sewage main has added to the problem in recent days, unleashing a malodorous fountain of untreated waste that is cascaded down a rocky outcropping and into the water, creating a huge brown stain.
The result of spotty infrastructure and chaotic urban planning stretching back decades, Rio's water pollution is in the spotlight ahead of next year's Olympics in the city.
An extensive cleanup of Rio's beaches, lakes, lagoons and its big Guanabara Bay, sites where Olympic aquatic events from sailing to rowing to open-water swimming are to be held, was marketed as one of the main legacies of the games. But with little progress on the promised cleanup, and with local and state authorities acknowledging the Olympic goals won't be met, athletes have begun to voice health and safety concerns about competing in the polluted waters.
In its statement, the World Surf League said it was confident that Barra da Tijuca beach "will deliver excellent conditions" as the primary site for next month's surfing event.
However, biologist Mario Moscatelli, an environmentalist who has been denouncing the state of Rio's waterways for decades, said water quality during the surfing competition will likely depend on wind and tides. Barra da Tijuca is near the spot where the sewage- and trash-filled Jacarepagua lagoon flows into the Atlantic. During low tide, wind can spread the brown patch of contaminated water to Barra da Tijuca.
Source: http://www.aol.com/
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